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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27178225">Nuts and Fires</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeperservice/pseuds/sleeperservice'>sleeperservice</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Puck of Pook's Hill Series - Rudyard Kipling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Autumn, Gen, Holidays</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:34:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>435</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27178225</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleeperservice/pseuds/sleeperservice</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Puck reflects on the changing traditions of late October and early November.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Trick or Treat Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Nuts and Fires</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/greerwatson/gifts">greerwatson</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Puck came upon the children as they were attempting to gather what was left of the nuts in the forest. "The animals have taken them all already! You're a bit late for what you are doing."</p>
<p>"But this is the time of year to do this," Una said.</p>
<p>"And what is this?" Puck asked, although he knew perfectly well what they were doing.</p>
<p>Dan replied, somewhat embarrassed. "They say that you can tell the future when you throw nuts onto a fire at this time of year."</p>
<p>"People are always after telling the future," Puck said, "but they may learn more by telling the past. In any case the squirrels have told their future first, and their future is full of hidden caches of nuts."</p>
<p>"Next year, then, we'll find nuts earlier," Una said.</p>
<p>Dan nodded. "Our father is always telling us to think ahead."</p>
<p>"Take his advice! That will be your sure way of telling your future." Puck grinned. "Is there anything else to which you are both looking forward?"</p>
<p>Dan's posture drooped in apparent sadness. "We were, but Father will not let us go. There are so many bonfires for Guy Fawkes Night in all the towns, but he says that there is so much disorder that night that it isn't right for us to be there. It seems so fun, though, to see the Guy being burnt and all."</p>
<p>"He doesn't want us to do it at home, either," Una said.</p>
<p>"Someday you'll be grown enough to go. The fire nights used to have a lot more disorder than there is now, though, especially the one in Lewes," Puck said. "Perhaps in a few years, they will be even more quiet. But I cannot see the future."</p>
<p>Puck was an Old Thing indeed and he had seen so much of the past. The late autumn fires in the north had not spread to Sussex for the same reasons, banishing the things like him that had already been banished, but the English would always make new things out of the old in some way; and the events of 1605 had spread new fires all over the country. Their faith in England, whether King or Country, would endure, and the new fires were that surety. The Guy was another symbolic sacrifice, getting rid of the things that made people angry or disgusted them in the fire, and in that way their hopes would be reborn. Puck would only hope, for England and the children and himself, that no more disorder and anger would be in the country's future. He could not see that far.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Largely written with Diamine Autumn Oak ink (I thought a UK-made seasonal ink was appropriate) and heavily informed by Ronald Hutton's <em>The Stations of the Sun</em>. The prompt was really inspiring and got me to think about a lot of things, especially on re-reading <em>Puck of Pook's Hill</em> after some other recent reads.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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